I'm looking for a basic power meter that would allow me to measure how much electricity my major home appliances use. I've already put together a little adaptor that lets me insert my multimeter into the circuit to do instantaneous readings on lower wattage things (e.g. my computer). However, this will only work up to 10A, and the instantaneous readings are really only useful for estimating power consumption of things that have fairly constant draw.
What I'm hoping to find is something like a miniature version of the electric meter you find outside your house. It would have a cord to plug into the wall socket (both 110V & 220V would be ideal), and a socket on the unit to plug in the appliance. You'd then leave it in place for a month or so and see what the cumulative usage has been. This would be ideal for checking consumption on appliances like a refrigerator, microwave, washer, etc that have intermittant spikes of high usage followed by periods of no draw.
Is it possible to buy a commercial version of a meter like this? If not, any suggestions of what components one could use to build one? What about buying a used household meter (big dials and all) and wiring that up?
Thanks, Jase